PHILADELPHIA – In a few weeks, Ethan Martin will arrive in Clearwater, Fla., one of a handful of candidates vying for the opening in the Phillies’ starting rotation created when the organization traded Vance Worley to Minnesota.

If you went purely by his 2012 season and his credentials as a former first-round draft pick, nothing about Martin’s status would seem surprising. He’s a right-hander with a live fastball and hard slider who went 13-6 with a 3.48 ERA in Double-A last season, allowing just 118 hits and striking out 147 in 157 2/3 innings. After coming to the Phillies in the Shane Victorino trade, the 23-year-old went 5-0 with a 3.18 ERA in seven starts.

However, when you take into consideration Martin’s first three professional seasons, it’s amazing that he not only is preparing for a big-league camp, but that he’s still pitching at all.

Martin was a gifted baseball player in high school. It’s why he was taken in the first round of the June MLB amateur draft by the Dodgers in 2008.

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Until his senior year at Stephens County School in Georgia, Martin exclusively built his reputation as an infielder with a live bat. However, as the quarterback of his school’s football team, he gradually built a lot of arm strength. And that added a new wrinkle to his baseball prospects.

“I threw (the football) almost every day my junior and seniors years, and it strengthened my arm,” Martin said last week while in Philly to partake in a prep program geared toward the team’s prospects. “I was throwing 84 (mph) after my sophomore year and I think in about a year that jumped up to 94.

“Teams were split between (drafting me as a) third baseman and pitcher. I didn’t have a clue. I’d never really talked to the Dodgers, then they called and said, ‘We’re going to draft you.’ And Bud Selig came on and (announced), ‘Ethan Martin, third baseman.’

“The Dodgers called real quick and said, ‘No, we’re taking you as a pitcher, he messed up.’”

It isn’t exactly a surprise to hear Bud Selig messed something up, but it was a surprise to Martin when he go to pro ball and found the going rough.

After getting away with some wildness in short-season Class A in 2009, Martin spent his first full season struggling mightily in the California League, where he went 9-14 with a 6.35 ERA. That’s not a typo – six-point-three-five.

The following year wasn’t much better. He repeated in the California League and lost his rotation spot, going 4-4 with a 7.36 ERA. In midseason he was moved to Double-A, not so much as a promotion, but to get a change of scenery. He went 5-3 with a 4.02 ERA in Chattanooga, mostly as a reliever.

Conventional wisdom was that the Dodgers were dealing with a monumental bust. And Martin couldn’t make much of an argument against that.

“You have a 6 ERA and you’re a first rounder … you have expectations, and then you’re out there doing that,” Martin said. “Knowing that, OK, something’s wrong, but I don’t have a clue because I never pitched before.

“When you’re still in high school you still have that cockiness, I guess. You figure it’s still baseball, I can do this. Then you realize when you get here that these aren’t the high school boys … those guys are going to work or college after that. These are guys who can hit. That’s when it started to get to me.”

Things started to turn for the better for Martin at Chattanooga last season. Then the trade arrived, and literally from the first day he and catcher Tommy Joseph (who also came to the Phils in the Victorino deal) arrived in Reading, the world changed. The R-Phils were starting a furious charge into the postseason spearheaded by Darin Ruf, who hit 20 home runs in August.

In his first start with Reading, Martin saw Ruf hit two homers. In his next start, Ruf homered again. In his third start, two more homers by Ruf.

“When Tommy and I got traded over here, (Ruf) had just started going,” Martin said. “He just kept going and kept going, and it was like, ‘Oh my goodness.’ When he came up to bat and didn’t get a home run and only got a double, you were like, ‘Really dude? Come on.’ Watching that was unbelievable.”

Martin impressed the front office with his performances in big-game situations. Reading needed a win in the regular season’s penultimate game to keep their postseason hopes alive, and he responded with seven innings of two-hit, scoreless baseball, striking out eight and walking none. In Game 4 of Reading’s playoff series against Trenton, he struck out 11 and walked none, and only came out on the losing end of a 3-1 game when the Thunder scored two unearned runs in the eighth inning.

While Martin seemed to be figuring it out before he switched organizations, there was something about the change that lifted a weight off his back.

“When I got over here, it was a new start,” he said. “I don’t know if I had just gotten comfortable with the Dodgers, but over here everything just started to lighten up. We had fun at it, instead of just playing the game every day. That last month was the most fun I’ve had playing professional baseball.”